Re-evaluating the role of classic literary monsters
This year marked the final season of John Logan’s horror/fantasy television series Penny Dreadful. After the first episode aired in 2014, the series that combines various characters and plot devices from Victorian and Romantic literature amassed a dedicated audience not simply drawn to the gothic world of night terrors, Victorian opulence, adventure, and social commentary, but to the series’ re-evaluation of what it means to be a “monster.”
“…the characters are multidimensional and challenge perceptions of monstrosity…”
As the tagline for the show, “There is some thing within us all,” indicates, the term “monster” is unstable and therefore subject to revision. While the main band of heroes in the series—consisting of Victor Frankenstein, werewolf Ethan Chandler, explorer Sir Malcolm Murray, and the enigmatic Vanessa Ives—battle with their own demons, even the antagonists that they face are complex and multifaceted. From Frankenstein’s Creature—portrayed with elegant sympathy by Rory Kinnear—who vacillates between displays of excessive violence and his desire for compassion, to the final season’s Dr. Sweet—whose other persona may not be as sugar-coated as his name implies—all of the characters are multidimensional and challenge perceptions of monstrosity and benevolence.
Regardless of the dark pasts that all of the characters have, throughout the series they are drawn to each other in different ways; whether in brief encounters like the Creature’s and Vanessa’s discussions in season two, or as romantic/familial counterparts as in the main group of heroes. Such displays of companionship amongst characters who have, admittedly, committed various horrific acts suggest that everyone needs and deserves to be loved, even if it is for a brief period of time.
“…as Dr. Frankenstein discovers, “It is too easy being monsters, let us try to be human.”
By the final season, Logan’s commentary on love and belonging progresses to a final poignant comment on life and death. The third season begins with an episode entitled “The Day Tennyson Died,” where despite England’s mourning for the Poet Laureate, Vanessa is inspired and comforted by reciting lines from Maud. In the final episode in the series, the opening title song is replaced by a lullaby culminating in the words, “And you’ll sing not of dying but living, wouldn’t that be nice?” The conclusion to the series ultimately suggests a form of comfort in the face of death through the love of those who continue living.
Aside from the thrills and chills promised in the show’s title, the most compelling lesson one can take from Penny Dreadful is that, as Dr. Frankenstein discovers, “It is too easy being monsters, let us try to be human.”
No matter how ambiguous and fragile the human condition is, we are all in this together.
Photo courtesy of Desert Wolf Productions.